ubud

ive been in the Balinese town of ubud for the past few days - i love it here! its a total hippieville, all organic restaurants (ammmazing food) and yoga centers and very bohemian feel everywhere (fab shopping in the markets too - im picking up all of my souvenirs here... including an extra bag to bring them home in!) It is very touristy, much more so then ive seen so far in indonesia, but i love it anyhow :) Today i went to a great restaurant for lunch called Sari Organics... its set about 1km off the main road so you walk for 15 minutes through all of these rice paddies - absolutely beautiful, and the place is set on its own organic farm which is where they grow all of the produce for the meals. really cool.
yesterday was also grand - went to the spa for an hours massage, body scrub and mask and flower petal bath (all for $10 - crazy!) and also took care of essentials such as extending my travel insurance and applying for my visa extension.
also went over to the monkey forest - a def highlight. within this little stretch of forest are 3 different troupes of the feistiest monkeys youve ever seen! theyve also built temples here to the monkeys and other animals of the forest, and theres legend that says the monkeys are protecting a hidden city. very fun

tomorrow im taking a vegetarian cooking class and then going to check out the remaining temples/palaces that i havent yet seen. not really in a rush to leave this place! its more expensive here than im used to in indonesia but not as expensive as kuta and the gillis are supposed to be. im happy to have found a travel company i really like here so am using them for this lovina-kuta trip (the great thing with them is that they let you stop as many places along the route to get out and spend a day or few days as you want - which also means the buses run everyday, on time - shocking!) and am def going to be booking them to head to the gillis as well (and maybe lombok, depending on how the schedule works out)